I grew up in the heart of Phoenix, Arizona; traffic jams, hurry to wait attitude, living next to neighbors who you didn’t really know. I thought I would always be a big city girl and could never survive the boundaries of a small town. Then I married a military man, my future was no longer my own.
When we got our orders to Italy we were so excited, it was exactly what we wanted! And what a better place to spend 3 years, after just spending 1 year apart while my husband was in Korea! When we first arrived it was definite culture shock for me! No longer did I have a job (okay that wasn’t so bad), the weather was wet and sticky, none of the Italians spoke English, and you have to live on the economy with minimal American’s close by if any at all. Wow! The biggest change? Small town feel, lazy life, no corporate America stores, with a 3 hour siesta in the middle of everyday. Was I in my worst nightmare?
After 3 months we were finally grumpily comfortable in our Italian apartment. I still had not gotten used to the lifestyle the Italians lived here. No lunch with friends, sporadic shopping trips, making dinner every night, and only being able to run one appliance at a time, this was going to take some getting used to! We did however enjoy the beautiful scenery of vineyards and the Alps from our windows, the short train ride to Venice, driving 45 minutes with only 2 stop lights, and the limitless European travel opportunities. I grew a soft spot for this place. Even through the daily frustrations, I began to appreciate a life where sipping on wine nightly and slowing picking cherries off the tree became first nature.
We are now 6 weeks away from moving across the ocean, back to the states, to D.C.!! Again, this was the base we applied for, and are very excited to go to. As the day’s get closer I am slowly getting petrified of being pushed back into the real world again. The experience will continue to fill our lives with memories, and we are looking forward to that. But the idea of days that are strung together because they move so fast, having every shop window leering you inside to spend money on things, and not slowing down to see every smile on my son’s face scares me. The world sucks us into this swirling tornado that we sometimes don’t realize we are in until one day we try to look back and think about the quality days we spent together or just for ourselves, and can’t remember them. I can truly say how important this slow pace experience in Italy has been to us, even though I fought it for so long. It has changed our lives, and I will strive to live everyday in the bustling D.C. area as slow as I can to enjoy every moment.
